1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an attachment to a key of a keyboard for disabled persons and, more particularly, to attachments for keys of a keyboard to provide a contact area greater than the available touch plate surface area of the keys.
2. Description of Related Art
The keys of keyboards for musical instruments, e.g., pianos and organs, and for equipment, e.g., typewriters, calculators, telephones, machine consoles, and computers, are closely spaced to one another and systematically arranged to play a musical arrangement or to operate a machine or device, respectively. The keys are closely spaced to facilitate rapid displacement of the fingers of the player or operator over selected keys and systematically depressing the selected keys.
Although the closely spaced keys facilitate contact for the able person, they pose drawbacks for the disabled person, e.g., a person with missing fingers, hand(s), arthritic hands and/or fingers, to name a few limitations. One solution is to enlarge the touch plate surface area of the keys. This solution has drawbacks, e.g., increased cost of making a larger keyboard for a low volume product, and requiring increased floor area to support the musical instrument and increased surface area to support the-keyboard for equipment.
As can be appreciated, it would be advantageous to provide an attachment to the keys that eliminates the above drawbacks, e.g., makes the size of the keys of the presently available keyboards of musical instruments and equipment useable by disabled persons.